The Renewal of the Social Organism

RSO: Appendix: An Appeal to the German Nation and to the Civilized World

Appendix

An Appeal to the German Nation
and to the Civilized World
(March 1919)

Germany believed herself
secure for time without end in her empire, which was founded half a
century ago. In August 1914 she thought the war she was faced with would
prove her
invincible. Today all she can do is look upon its ruins. Such an experience
calls for self-reflection. For such an experience proved that an opinion
held for fifty years, and especially the ideas that had prevailed during
the war, had been a tragic error. Where can the reasons for this fateful
error be found? This question must now call forth a process of
self-evaluation within the soul of every German. Will there be enough
strength left for such introspection? Germany's very existence depends
upon it. Germany's future also hinges upon the sincerity of the
questioning mind — how did we fall prey to such fatal
misconceptions? If reflection upon this inquiry starts immediately,
then it will come in a flash of understanding: yes, we did found an
empire half a century ago, but we neglected to give it a task springing
from within the very essence of its national spirit.

The empire
was founded. During the first years of its existence care was taken
to shape its inner possibilities according to demands posed, year
after year, by old traditions and new endeavors. Later, progress was
made to safeguard and enlarge the outer positions of power that were
based on material resources. Linked to it were policies regulating the
social demands of the new era, policies that did take into ac-count
the requirements of the day, to some extent, but lacked a greater vision.

A goal could have been defined had there been enough sensitivity to
the growing needs of the new generation. Thus the empire found itself
in the larger world arena without an essential direction or goal to
justify its existence. The debacle of the war revealed this truth in
an unfortunate way. Until the war, other nations saw nothing to suggest
that Germany had a historic world mission that ought not to be swept
away. Her failure to manifest such a mission, according to those
with real insight, was the underlying cause of Germany's ultimate breakdown.

Immeasurably
much depends now on the ability of the German people to assess this
state of affairs objectively. Dis-aster should call forth an insight
that never appeared during the previous fifty years. Instead of petty
thoughts about the immediate concerns of the day, the grand sweep of
an en-lightened philosophy of life should surge through the present,
endeavoring to recognize the evolutionary forces within the new generation,
and dedicating itself to them with a courageous will. There really must
be an end to all the petty attempts to dismiss as impractical idealists
everyone who has his eye on these evolutionary forces. A stop must be
put to the arrogance and presumption of those who consider themselves
to be practical, yet who are the very ones whose narrow-mindedness,
masked as practicality, has led to disaster. Consideration must be given
to the evolutionary demands of the new age as enunciated by those who,
although labeled impractical idealists, are actually the real practical
thinkers.

For a long time, “pragmatists” of all kinds have fore-seen
the emergence of new human needs. However, they wanted to meet them
with traditional modes of thought and institutions. The economic life
of modern times gave rise to these needs. It seemed impossible to satisfy
them following avenues of private initiative. It seemed imperative to
one class that, in a few areas, private labor should be changed over
into social labor; and where this class's own philosophy deemed it profitable,
the change became effective. Another class wanted radically to turn
all individual labor into social labor. This group, influenced by recent
economic developments, had no interest in the preservation of private
goals.

All efforts regarding humanity's new demands hereto-fore have one thing
in common: they all aim at the socialization of the private sector
in the expectation that it will be taken over by communal bodies (the
state or commune); however, these have their origins in preconceptions
that have nothing to do with these new demands. Nor is any consideration
given to the fact that the newer cooperatives, which are also expected
to play a role in the takeover, have not been formed fully in accordance
with the new requirements, but are still imbued with old thought
patterns and habits.

The truth is that none of the communal institutions influenced
in any way by these old patterns can be a proper vehicle for the new
ideas. The forces at work in modern times urge recognition of a social
structure for all humanity that comprehends something entirely different
from prevailing views. Heretofore, social communities have been
largely shaped by human social instincts. The task of the times must
be to permeate these forces with full consciousness.

The social organism is articulated like a natural organism. Just
as the natural organism must take care of the process of thinking
through its head and not through its lungs, so the social organism must
be organized into systems. No one system can assume the work of the
other; each must work harmoniously with the others while preserving
its own integrity.

Economic
life can prosper only if it develops according to its own laws and energies
as an independent system within the social organism, and if it does
not let confusion upset its structure by permitting another part of
the social order—that which is at work in politics — to
invade it. On the contrary, the political system must function independently
alongside the economic system, just as in the natural organism breathing
and thinking function side by side. Their wholesome collaboration can
be attained only if each member has its own vitally interacting regulations
and ad-ministration. However, beneficial interaction falters if both
members have one and the same administrative and regulatory organ.
If it is allowed to take over, the political system is bound to destroy
the economy, and the economic system loses its vitality if it becomes
political.

These
two spheres of the social organism must now be joined by a third that
is shaped quite independently, from within its own life-possibilities
— the cultural sphere, with its own legitimate order and administration.
The cultural portions of the other two spheres belong in this sphere
and must be submitted to it; yet the cultural sphere has no administrative
power over the other two spheres and can influence them only as
the organ systems coexisting within a complete natural organism influence
each other.

Today it is already possible to elaborate at length upon the necessity
of the social organism and to establish a scientific basis for
it in every detail. Here, however, only guidelines can be offered for
those who want to pursue the important task.

The foundation of the German Empire came at a time when the younger
generation was already confronted with these necessities. However, its
administration did not understand how to give the Empire a mission with
a view to these needs. Understanding it would not only have helped provide
the right inner structure; it would have guided Ger-many in a justified
direction in world politics. Given such an impetus, the German people
could have lived together with other nations.

Disaster ought to give rise now to introspection. The will to make
the social organism possible must be strengthened. A new spirit—not
the Germany of the past—should now confront the external world.
A new Germany with cultural, economic and political systems, each with
its own administrations, should now begin the work of rebuilding
relation-ships with the victor. Germany failed to recognize in time
that, unlike other nations, she needed to become strong through the
threefold articulation of the social order; there-fore, she must do
so now.

One
can imagine the so-called pragmatists saying how these new concepts
are too complicated, and how uncomfortable they are merely thinking
about a collaboration of three spheres. Shying away from the real demands
of life, they want to pursue complacently their own habits of thought.
They must awaken to the fact: either one must deign to sub-mit one's
thinking to the demands of reality, or nothing will have been learned
from the debacle, and this self-inflicted misery will be endlessly
perpetuated and compounded.